I don’t usually get calls near midnight. And I’ve never had one from Doug Ford at any hour.But a week ago Thursday, my evening ended with a call from the premier of Ontario.I had texted his cellphone to ask why a friend had been laid off when he had promised that no public servant would lose a job.It has been widely reported that Doug Ford gives his number out, like his brother did, and asks people to reach out. I found it with a simple Google search.At 11:18 p.m., he texted back: “Daniel are you still up?” and asked if I had a minute for a call. I replied, “I am, and I do.” Ten seconds later, “No Caller ID” was calling.It was one of the most surreal calls of my life.The premier seemed tired. He started in right away on how much respect he has for “99.99%” of the teachers in Ontario. I explained that my friend wasn’t a teacher, but a public servant with 10 years of service. I was polite and respectful and, as I wrote later on Twitter, we canvassed a number of topics.Why, I asked, was it necessary to cut the funding for the planting of 50 million trees? The premier said he learned of that specific cut that morning and he called his “people” to ask, “what that was about.” He then explained that “the forestry industry are the best stewards of the environment.” We discussed legal-aid cuts: “I was told there were less cases, but more lawyers taking fees.” I asked where that fact came from and he said, “it’s what I was told.” The premier told me his cuts “could have been much worse.”When I felt the conversation coming to an end, I mentioned that I had met his brother and that some of my family had voted Conservative. “The people voted for me,” he said. “And they voted for Rob. That’s who we work for, the people.” He said once again that he doesn’t like to promise anything “1,000%” ...
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